Berlin (dpa/lhe) - For Hesse's head of government Boris Rhein, the solution that has now been found on citizen income is acceptable. "The compromise is impressive. I consider the result to be a great success for federalism," said the CDU politician on Wednesday evening. The Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat had reached an agreement, as the German Press Agency learned from participants. Citizens' income is to start at the beginning of the year with significantly higher standard rates in basic security.
Rhein said that from his point of view the most important thing about the compromise is that there is no grace period (time of trust) for those who only want to be supported by the state, but do not want to be challenged, as previously planned. "That means: moderate sanctions, i.e. a reduction in performance by ten percent, are already possible for the first breach of duty; they can be increased to up to 30 percent after the third breach of duty."
Second, the waiting period will be halved from the originally planned two years to one year. This means that the assets of the beneficiaries are taken into account after just one year. And: The benefit recipient's assets are now not the 60,000 euros previously planned by the traffic light, but 40,000 euros. For each additional household member it is now 15,000 euros instead of the originally planned 30,000 euros.
